Below is a list of California State Senate and Assembly bills and where CAFP stands on each. Click on a bill to read a description. 

CAFP Sponsored Bill(s)

SB 393(Hernandez) Medical homes

Summary: Authored by the chair of the Senate Health Committee, Ed Hernandez (D - Los Angeles), this CAFP-sponsored bill would add a more functional definition of "patient-centered medical home" to California law. Joining CAFP in co-sponsorship of the bill are the American Academy of Pediatrics - California chapters, the California Psychiatric Association, the Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of California, the American College of Physicians - California chapters, the California Association of Physician Assistants, and the California Association for Nurse Practitioners, the California Association of Physicians Groups, and the California Primary Care Association.

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CAFP Priority Bills

AB 415 (Logue) Healing arts: telehealth

Summary: Authored by the Vice Chair of the Assembly Health Committee, Dan Logue (R - Chico), this bill aims to update and clarify current telehealth law and will have an effect on family physicians who are currently employing this mode of care delivery.  It would require verbal consent to be obtained from the patient and documented in the patient's record prior to the use of telehealth. It also would apply all laws regarding the confidentiality of health care information and a patient's rights to his or her medical information to all telehealth interactions. In addition, the bill would require every health plan and insurer, including those contracting with the Medi-Cal Managed Care Program, to adopt payment policies to compensate health care providers who provide covered health care services through telehealth (subject to the terms and conditions of the contract between the enrollee or subscriber and the health plan). Finally, the bill clarifies a provision that prohibits health plans and health insurers from requiring in-person contact between a health care provider and a patient before payment is made for telehealth services.
Position: Support

AB 441 (Monning) State planning  

Summary: Requires local and regional transportation plans to consider health issues.
Position: Support

AB 916 (V. Manuel Pérez) Promotores: medically underserved communities: federal grants   

Summary: Requires the Department of Public Health to seek grants available in PPACA for funding opportunities related to the use of promotores (e.g. community health workers) in medically underserved communities to promote positive health behaviors and outcomes.  
Position: Support

AB 1059 (Huffman) Health care service plans   

Summary: Requires a managed care health plan to pay the amount owed plus interest to a provider when a plan has been found to have underpaid or failed to pay. The Director of DMHC may also assess an administrative penalty on the plan. The bill would authorize the Director to exempt a plan from paying the administrative penalty if the director makes a written finding that paying both the penalty and the provider would jeopardize the financial solvency of the plan. The bill also specifies that a provider shall not be required to resubmit a claim to a plan unless the director makes a determination that an extraordinary circumstance exists and requires the plan to reimburse the provider for the cost of resubmission.
Position: Support

AB 1116 (Fong) Emergency services: populations with limited English proficiency

Summary: Requires the Secretary of California Emergency Management to consider the multiple languages and needs of populations who have limited proficiency in the English language during emergency preparedness planning, response, and recovery. The bill would also require the secretary to work in collaboration with ethnic media and ethnic community-based organizations in developing communication strategies about alert and warning information, and to use a registry of qualified bilingual persons in public contact positions to assist in emergency preparedness, response, and recovery.
Position: Support

AB 1296 (Bonilla) Health Care Eligibility, Enrollment, and Retention Act   

Summary: Enacts the Health Care Eligibility, Enrollment, and Retention Act, which would require the California Health and Human Services Agency to establish a standardized single application form and related renewal procedures for Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, the Exchange, and county programs.  
Position: Support

AB 1334 (Feuer) Health care coverage   

Summary: Requires plans and insurers to categorize all products offered in the individual market into 5 tiers based on the percentage of health care expenses paid for by health insurance, and not of out-of-pocket costs paid by an individual.     
Position: Support

SB 41 (Yee) Hypodermic needles and syringes   

Summary: Makes permanent and expands statewide a county opt-in pilot project that allows pharmacists and physicians to sell hypodermic needle or syringes. Pharmacists will have to provide written information and verbal counseling at the time of furnishing the hypodermic needle or syringe about drug treatment, testing for HIV and hepatitis C, and safe syringe disposal.
Position: Support

SB 51 (Alquist) Health care coverage  

Summary: Requires health care service plans and health insurers to comply with medical loss ratio requirements imposed under PPACA. Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has requested that CAFP support the bill.
Position: Support

SB 155 (Evans) Maternity services  

Summary: Requires health insurance policies to provide coverage for maternity services.
Position: Support

SB 173 (Simitian) Healing arts: mammograms

Summary: This bill requires that mammography-results letters indicate if the woman has highly dense breasts and, if so, inform her that mammography may not be able to pick up small abnormalities in highly dense breasts, and state that additional screening of her breast might be necessary. Opponents of the bill argue that 50 percent of women have highly dense breasts, mammography may not be able to pick up small abnormalities in ALL breast types, and that medical guidelines for additional screening with the sole factor of high breast density does not exist. While CAFP believes a patient has the right to know about her breast type, there is concern that the way in which patients are informed under this bill changes the standard of medical care in a manner not supported by current clinical guidelines and could cause physicians to refer for more testing than is scientifically indicated.
Position: Express Concern

SB 299 (Evans) Employment: pregnancy or childbirth leave 

Summary: Prohibits an employer from refusing to maintain and pay for coverage under a group health plan for an employee who takes pregnancy or childbirth leave.
Position: Support

SB 486 (Dutton) California Children and Families Program: funding  

Summary: Abolishes the California Children and Families Commission and the county children and families commissions. This bill would require that its provisions be submitted to the voters for approval at the next statewide election.
Position: Oppose

SB 558 (Simitian) Elder and dependent adults: abuse or neglect: damages

Summary: Would lower the burden of proof from "clear and convincing" to a "preponderance of evidence" in cases involving an instance of abuse or neglect of an elder or dependent adult. Supporters argue that the higher evidentiary standard makes winning cases of elder abuse very difficult and, therefore, it should be lowered. Opponents believe SB 558 would enhance a law that has been used to make an end-run around MICRA by blurring the line between "professional negligence" and "neglect" to file elder abuse claim for any negative occurrence or outcome in a nursing facility. This effectively enables attorneys to circumvent the MICRA limits on attorney fees and damages for pain and suffering.  CAFP believes that lowering the evidence standard, as suggested in SB 558, is likely to further encourage this practice, thereby weakening MICRA protections for health care providers serving this particularly important population.
Position: Express Concern

SB 616 (DeSaulnier) Medi-Cal: grants

Summary: Requires DHCS to pursue the "Medicaid Incentives for Prevention of Chronic Diseases Program" grant provided by CMS under PPACA.
Position: Support

SB 635 (Hernandez) Health care: workforce training

Summary: Currently, the first $1,000,000 in fines and penalties assessed against health care service plans by DMHC are deposited into the Stephen M. Thompson Physician Corp Loan Repayment Program. Any amount over the first $1,000,000, including accrued interest, is deposited in the Major Risk Medical Insurance Fund. The fund helps to provide major risk medical coverage to eligible persons who have been rejected for coverage by at least one private health plan. Due to the coverage expansion of PPACA, this fund will be obsolete in 2014. This bill would instead transfer funds over the first $1,000,000 each year to the Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training program.
Position:  Support

SB 747 (Kehoe) Continuing education: lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender patients

Summary: Requires physicians and surgeons, registered nurses, certified vocational nurses, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, licensed clinical social workers, and psychiatric technicians to complete at least one course of 2 to 5 hours in duration that provides instruction on cultural competency, sensitivity, and best practices for providing adequate care to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons. The bill would require the applicable licensing board to enforce these requirements.  
Position: Oppose unless Amended - amend to include LGBT CME in cultural competency requirement under current law.

SB 866 (Hernandez) Health care coverage: prescription drugs

Summary: Requires the Department of Managed Health Care and the Department of Insurance to, on or before July 1, 2012, develop a prior authorization form for use by every health care service plan and health insurer that provides prescription drug benefits. The bill would require every physician, when requesting prior authorization for prescription drug benefits, to submit the prior authorization form to the health care service plan or health insurer, and would require those plans and insurers to utilize and accept those prior authorization forms for prescription drug benefits. Upon a failure to accept the prior authorization form or to respond to a physician within two business days, the bill would deem the prior authorization request as granted.   
Position: Support

AJR 10 (Brownley) School-based health centers

Summary: Would memorialize the Legislature's support for the school-based health center program authorized by the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, an appropriation by the United States Congress to fund this program, policies that include school-based health centers as a partner in creating a medical home for all children, and the inclusion of school-based health centers in the reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Position: Support

AJR 13 (Lara) Graduate medical education

Summary: Would urge the President and the Congress of the United States to continue to provide resources to increase the supply of physicians in California and to consider solutions that would increase the number of graduate medical education residency positions.
Position: Support

Position: Support